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End Of 14-Year Wait To Get
Houses
17/01/2006 Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 (Bernama) -- A 14-year wait for 310 families of
squatters in Matang Pagar, Sungai Buluh, Selangor, to have their own houses
finally ended Tuesday.
All of them were given the opportunity to draw lots for two-storey low-cost
houses that cost RM28,000 per unit in Taman Matang Jaya, Sungai Buluh, today
and tomorrow. The draw took place at the Gombak District Office Complex
here.
Gombak District Officer Tarmedi Omar said 360 offer letters were issued but
only 310 took up the offer.
"If they fail to take up the offer within one month from Jan 19, the Gombak
Land Office will assume that they have rejected the offer," he said.
He said the land office was in discussion with 72 other families which had
applied for lots.
"The government has asked them to make their choice -- either to take the
house or get the land without any basic amenities and with big rocks around.
The decision is in their hands," he added.
The plight of the Matang Pagar squatters started in 1986 when they were
relocated to a temporary settlement in Sungai Buluh. The site where their
homes stood was acquired for a road project.
In 1992, they were supposed to have had their own houses but the project had
to be deferred after 72 families objected to the project as they wanted to
have plots of land instead.
The matter was brought to court but the writ was eventually annulled in 2001
after a negotiation with the Selangor government.
The housing project was later resumed by the Selangor State Development
Corporation.
Tarmedi said the three-room terrace houses would be the last to be built for
squatters in Selangor. From now on, squatters ordered to evict would be
offered low-cost flats.
"In the Gombak District, we have two municipalities. In the Ampang Jaya
Municipality, 90 per cent of the squatters have been relocated while in the
Selayang Municipality, nearly 60 per cent have been moved," he said.
Gombak is targeted to attain zero-squatter status by June this year.
-- BERNAMA |
